


Blackout

by TheAzureFox



Category: Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: Gen, Semi-Canon Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-28
Updated: 2019-11-28
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:34:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21595444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAzureFox/pseuds/TheAzureFox
Summary: In which the powerless search for the fireworks that will light up the night sky.
Relationships: Hop & Gloria, Hop/Gloria if you squint, Leon & Gloria
Comments: 3
Kudos: 33





	Blackout

**Author's Note:**

> [I implore you to watch this song before you start this fanfic. For an enhanced reading experience, of course :3c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RO5U7bMckQ)
> 
> Feel free to ignore this warning though because there's a chance this will still make sense otherwise lol.

“Blackout! Blackout!”

The sky is a lovely shade of blue before it is impaled by blades of pink light.

Underneath the feet of Gloria, the ground rumbles, creaking with a strange, eerie power that shudders with an aura unlike that of which she has ever felt before.

“Blackout! Blackout!”

Leon feels it too. His eyes are wide with terror, his face marred by a startling portrait of panic and fear as he sways, the shaking of the earth sending him scrambling for balance. 

The man reaches for her, just as she reaches for him, but the beam that splits the earth in two keeps them separate, unreachable from each other as darkness swallows the light above.

“Blackout! Blackout!”

On the giant TV screen that sits embedded on the side of the stadium, an image flickers to life. The face of Chairman Rose appears, the man smiling his dazzling smile as he tilts his head to the side and says:

“Everyone relax, please.”

Leon curls his lips at the image, anger and understanding alight in his eyes all at once as Rose holds up his hands and apologizes for an incident entirely under his control.

“What’s going on? What’s going on?”

The world around them is screaming, tossed into hysterics as the masses flee the stadium. Leon climbs onto his Charizard, settling on the dragon’s back as the creature swoops around the blade of light which shoots into the air and comes to her side.

“Everyone relax, please.”

Rose’s message plays like a record left on repeat, spieling endlessly and endlessly as blame slithers its way onto Leon’s mantle. Leon is paying little attention to the racket of the crowd, however, as he clamps Gloria’s shoulder tightly and nods at her.

“I’m behind you,” the man says just as his little brother comes scrambling onto the field, delivered by his Corviknight which lands on the shining grass.

“What’s going on? What’s going on?”

The boy is frantic, waving his arms around as he grabs Gloria’s hand, nods at his brother, and pulls Gloria up onto his Corviknight.

“Calling all taxis,” he murmurs, as if whispering a joke that’s not quite a joke. He turns to Leon. “I’ll be right back.”

And the man nods, watching as the two ascend over the world and into the skies, beams of pink feeding into the sky and leeching a black haze which obscures the blue heavens above from view. His Corviknight works fast, beating its wings with long strokes as it dashes through the air, cutting through the night that isn’t quite a night.

“We are powerless! We are powerless!”

The entire region moans in despair as bizarre energy cackles in the air. Gloria feels something otherworldly prick at her skin, electricity digging into her pores until all she can feel is the raw power of something that has let madness descend upon the earth.

“Got to find Sonia. Tell her what is going on.”

Hop grips his shoulder, tightening his grip around her waist as Corviknight descends into a town made unfamiliar by the shadows of something evil. There, the two of them run to a gate made of fairytale silver, watching as a woman with hair the color of fire greets them with stars in her eyes. However, when she notes the skies above - so absent of the stars she shows in her stare - her curiosity morphs into something morbid.

“Hey what happened?” Sonia says, terror manifesting in her gaze. “Hold up, wait. The blackout came?”

Hop and Gloria nod at her and then move past to stand at the gate that stands between them and the Slumbering Weald.

“Somebody better open up these goddamn doors!”

The two of them tear open the gates, heedless to the protesting hinges or Sonia’s shout of puzzlement as the two of them push past into the woods that tower over them like ants.

“Somebody better open up these goddamn doors!”

Their voices scream in unison, as they trek through the Slumbering Weald, winding their way through tendrils of mist and coils of foliage. The two keep by each other’s sides, hand in hand as they progress through the darkness of the woods.

“We are powerless! We are powerless!”

As if their screams have invited visitors, two shadows emerge from the mist. A wolf cut from azure and a wolf bathed in crimson manifest, circling the pair as if to give judgment.

“Give me a light,” Hop says. The crimson wolf heeds his call stopping to stand in front of him with its head bowed.

“We’ll be right back,” Gloria adds. The azure wolf stands before Gloria, raising its chin to look down upon her as it stares.

Then, as if answering an unspoken call, the two let loose a howl and disappear into the void of the mist, stopping only when their forms have become silhouettes to watch, waiting. The gold of their red-ringed eyes flashes, impatient, and then they escape across a bridge made from rotting wood without hesitation.

“Where’d you go?”

Hop shouts, scrambling after the wolves which have fled from view.

“Where’d you go?”

Gloria’s voice follows that of her friend’s, the girl pushing through endless curtains of white as she continues through the forest.

“Where’d you go?”

Their calls mingle at once, blooming into a caterwaul of helplessness as they yell, chasing after the shadows of myths. Gloria finds herself running, shrieking, pursuing unknowns and mysteries into the depths of a void, chasing an empty promise-

And then she emerges into a clearing devoid of mist, she finds Hop already standing before her. She comes to his side, observing a shrine where two wolves sit. They stare at the pair, their eyes revealing nothing as they lift paws to gesture to two items at their feet.

“Please promise me,” the wolf of azure says without speaking, nudging a rusted sword in Gloria’s direction.

“You’ll guard this with your life,” the crimson wolf continues, shoving a rusted shield in Hop’s direction.

The two of them bend down to pick up the items at their feet, holding them with reverence despite the coat of scarred charcoal that blemishes their appearance.

“I gotta go,” the two of them say, eyes glittering with stars in a world now devoid of them. “But we will bring them home.”

And the wolves nod at that, retreating across the waters of the lake stretching before them. Mist obscures their figures yet again, stealing them from view and, in their absence, Gloria and Hop turn to each other and nod.

They exit the forest, greeting Sonia as she comes to greet them, fussing over the state of the region as she says: “Everyone is screaming and shoving and shouting and slapping. Everyone’s frantic. What’s happening with you?”

Gloria reveals her rusted sword to the woman while Hop does the same for his shield. Sonia nods, inhaling sharply as she says: “Light up the night sky.”

With heavy hearts, they ascend into the sky, Corviknight guiding them into the darkness of the world as its steel wings cut through ebony clouds tinged pink. Hop holds tight to Gloria’s waist as he guides his mount through the skies, avoiding Cramorants the size of mansions and gigantic Frosmoth’s glistening with wings of glittering ice.

“I’ll get you out of here tonight,” Hop promises her, swerving around projectiles made from glaciers and lakes that shoot their way. 

She nods to him, letting him take her where he must as they arrive to a tower formed from roses. His Corviknight circles the tower, wary of the pink spiral of light that sparks from its center. It hovers, uncertain, and that’s when Gloria realizes they’re not alone.

A Togekiss appears to their right, Bede and Opal sitting atop the white bird as they stare at the pair with eyes narrowed.

“We are powerless,” they say.

To their left, a dark-skinned woman sits atop a Pelipper, hands running through the black and blue locks of her hair as she watches them, biting on the tip of her nail as she yells: 

“We are powerless!”

Above the woman with the Pelipper sits a woman and her son atop a Frosmoth, the both of them looking rather upset as they shout:

“We are powerless!”

A girl being held aloft by a Hawklucha and a boy staying on top of a Gengar watch the two of them, seemingly musing as they murmur:

“We are powerless.”

Held in the air by the psychic powers of a floating Malamar are a man and a girl. Both of them nod at Hop and Gloria, offering up vacant smiles as they repeat:

“We are powerless.”

A man on top of a Flygon, a man on atop of a hovering Eldegoss (and who is joined by a man wearing a uniform crafted from fire) make up the rest of the people surrounding them, each bowing their heads in defeat as they echo:

“We are powerless.”

Hop and Gloria watch their audience as they, in turn, watch the pair. They look amongst themselves, agreeing to something unspoken as they descend upon the rooftop, their audience watching from afar as the beam of pink light is circled by a man and his Charizard.

Leon calls out to them, tells them to stay back, and they do, watching as the pink beam contorts before them to become a shape. That shape manifests in the appearance of a being beyond Gloria’s understanding, becoming the skeleton of a monster she’s never seen before as it roars. The ectoplasm of its form crackles with the strange energy that haunts the air. It makes Gloria inhale sharply, cradling her arms around herself as Hop lands his Corviknight and pulls her down from it.

The entity before them screams, writhing in the air as it shoots out beams of magenta energy that burn through the rooftop it occupies. Leon waves for Gloria and Hop to get back yet again, waving them to the rails which line the walls, and then he produces a Pokeball.

Gloria watches as he tosses the item at the being before them, watches as the item sucks in the monstrosity, pulling it inwards and inwards, and then finds herself cutting her breath short as the Pokeball snaps close, dropping to the ground.

It twitches. Once.

Leon looks to his Pokemon. Gestures.

Charizard leaps out in front of them just as a blast of white energy spirals outwards. Gloria shuts her eyes, unable to stand the burning heat of such an event as she holds her arms up to shield her face.

When the light fades, she opens her eyes again, letting them adjust as she takes in the sight before them. Hop does the same beside her, blinking his eyes rapidly, before they both notice the state of Leon and Charizard: both falling unconscious in sync as the damage sustained by their bodies causes them to fall.

“We are powerless,” Leon says, gasping. “We are powerless.”

The monster roars, rearing before them and snarling with a voice made from black holes and dark matter. Gloria and Hop stand strong in the face of it, feeling the weight of the world on their shoulders as they look at each other.

“You’re not alone,” Hop promises her, taking her hand and baring his rusted shield before him.

“I’m not alone,” she echoes, squeezing back and raising her rusted sword.

And, as if a magic spell has been cast upon the tower, two blobs of white shimmer into existence, tendrils of mist appearing from nowhere to form the shapes of wolves fashioned from azure and crimson. The two creatures unleash howls that rival the call of the entity before them, an otherworldly noise of _hope_ lighting the air as the items in Hop’s and Gloria’s hands dissolve. Metal particles form in the air, glinting with golden polish placed upon them anew, before the droplets rush to seep into the pelts of the creatures before them.

“Look at the fireworks, the fireworks!” Shout the gym leaders of Galar, circling from above as the wolves begin to sparkle.

“Look at the fireworks!” Shouts Leon as Charizard picks him up and carries him to rest among the ranks of those above.

“Look at the fireworks!” Hop and Gloria call in unison, grabbing the pokeballs snapped to their belts as Zacian and Zamazenta howl “Look at the fireworks!” and emerge anew.

The monster before them rears its head, crying out in fear as it coils outwards, its form elongating into a spiral that reaches out with a hand that seeks to grab them with its tendrils of pink.

“You are not alone tonight!” Shout the people from above.

“You are not alone tonight!” Shouts the region in its entirety, a wave of cheer wracking the whole region in its silent knowing.

“I’ll get you out of here tonight,” Hop and Gloria promise simultaneously to their waiting audience, calling upon their Pokemon to fight alongside the wolves who have appeared before them. 

“Now,” the two of them say, “let’s light up the night sky!”

**Author's Note:**

> As someone who is working on a horde of Sonia-centric works atm, it feels weird AF to write about her for a measly few paragraphs and then ditch her completely lol.
> 
> Regardless, I had this really dumb idea to take the Blackout song from In The Heights and translate it into a fanfic about the Darkest Day and the battle against Eternatus and, well, here I am now. 
> 
> I'm sorry for any confusion this fanfic caused because I basically wanted to write this so that the only dialogue spoken is just lyrics from the song. Of course, I had to fine-tune some of the words in said lyrics to better fit the speech patterns/narrative focus of the story but other than that most of the dialogue spoken is word for word for lines spoken in the song.


End file.
